Diplo Details New Major Lazer Collabs, Says He Dropped “Cold Water” To Help End This Summer’s Drought

Despite all the fame and fortune and famous friends/enemies and simultaneous projects, Diplo has always managed to stay tapped into the zeitgeist. The latest example: He’s the first big musician, that I’m aware of, who has echoed what we common folk have been saying about this summer being a total drought in terms of anthems. “One Dance” is the Song of the Summer by default (and Diplo says it’s his favorite pop record of the year,) but despite the stats it’s by no means a sensation the way songs of the summer should be. In a new interview with Zane Lowe for Beats 1, Diplo explained that this lackluster season even played a role in the release of “Cold Water.”

“The summer’s been kind of slow for some music, so we thought, ‘Let’s put out a single — we gotta give the people something,'” he told the host. “Drake and Rihanna killed it this year, but that record came out a while ago — there hasn’t really been a summer vibe.”

The producer also talked about Major Lazer‘s long-awaited follow-up to Peace Is The Mission, giving more context about its high-profile collabs. First, he says a collab with The Weeknd which was intended for the LP will probably end up on the singer’s next album. Among the 40 tracks he’s working on right now, here’s what he can narrow down: “Definitely we have Usher on it, MØ’s back on songs, we have a song with Sam Hunt which is very unusual but I love him. Travi$ Scott…Sia is on a couple ideas but one of the records might be her record. She’s definitely background vocals on a song for sure.”

He’s aiming for another single in August, a third by the end of the year and the album release in January. We’ll see if that all materializes.

Hear the full interview below.